The Northeast Florida Small Business Resource Guide
Chambers of commerce, free mentorship, and emergency management contacts for Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Green Cove Springs, all in one place
If you run a small business anywhere in Northeast Florida, bookmark this page. We’ll keep it updated as things change, and if there’s a resource missing that belongs here, we’d genuinely like to hear about it.
Chambers of Commerce
Chamber membership connects you with other local business owners, gives you a voice in local policy, and in a lot of cases lends real credibility with customers who recognize the name. Here are the chambers serving our three primary service counties.
Representing more than 3,000 businesses across the Jacksonville region, JAX Chamber is the primary business organization for Duval County, offering networking events, advocacy, and educational programming for members of all sizes.
St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce
Serving St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach, Ponte Vedra, and the rest of St. Johns County, this chamber represents over 1,000 member businesses across manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, and professional services.
Clay County Chamber of Commerce
Covering Green Cove Springs, Orange Park, Fleming Island, and the rest of Clay County, this chamber focuses specifically on supporting the small business sector of its membership with educational programs and networking.
Free Business Mentorship and Counseling
These organizations offer free or low-cost guidance for businesses at every stage, from startup planning to scaling an existing operation. All three are funded in part through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
A network of volunteer business mentors offering free, confidential one-on-one counseling and low-cost workshops. SCORE mentors bring real-world experience across accounting, marketing, operations, and dozens of other business disciplines, with sessions available in both Jacksonville and St. Augustine.
Part of the University of North Florida’s Coggin College of Business, the SBDC provides no-cost consulting and training across an 18-county region including Duval, St. Johns, and Clay counties. Services include business continuation planning, which is directly relevant to disaster and hurricane preparedness for business owners.
SBA North Florida District Office
The U.S. Small Business Administration’s regional office, serving 43 counties from Jacksonville. Offers funding programs, counseling, federal contracting certification support, and disaster recovery assistance for small businesses.
Emergency Management and Hurricane Preparedness
Each county in our service area maintains its own emergency management office, and each one publishes hurricane guides, evacuation zone lookups, and alert sign-ups specific to that county. If you operate across multiple counties, it’s worth registering for alerts in each one.
JaxReady (Duval County / City of Jacksonville)
Run by the City of Jacksonville’s Emergency Preparedness Division, JaxReady includes evacuation zone lookup, the AlertJax notification system, and a downloadable business continuity template specifically for local business owners.
St. Johns County Emergency Management
Coordinates countywide disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for St. Augustine and the rest of St. Johns County, including the Alert St. Johns notification system and an evacuation zone finder.
Clay County Emergency Management
Serves Green Cove Springs and the rest of Clay County with the Alert Clay notification system, an All Hazards Preparedness Guide, and evacuation zone and shelter information.
Florida Division of Emergency Management
The statewide agency coordinating disaster response across Florida, including current evacuation orders and state-level disaster resources during an active storm.
Why We Put This Together
We’re a locally owned IT company, and being part of this community means more to us than a service area listed on a website. These organizations, the chambers, the mentors at SCORE and the SBDC, the emergency management teams keeping the region informed every hurricane season, do real work for small businesses here, often without much recognition for it.
If you run one of the organizations listed here and want to make sure your information stays current, or if you know of a resource that belongs on this list, we’d like to hear from you.